Robbie's Roadhouse

aunderscorek wrote about Robbie's Roadhouse

Driving through Leucadia today, I was struck by a fond memory I had of Robbie's French Dip sandwich. So I pulled Miss Lady and I off the road to nosh mid-househunting.

Well, let me tell you, memory can be a fickle beast, especially when developed and tortured by many and varied experiences with good taste. However, something tells me that Robbie's would have sucked without a previous experience, with no memory full of other good tastes, and even if I had ordered that same French dip sandwich.

I ordered the Muffaletta alla Sparky. Here is what the meal describes itself as: Ciabatta bread filled with salami, prosciutto, ham, provolone, mozzarella, tomatoes, lettuce, mustard and Italian dressing.

Red flags went off, but this was Robbie's, part of the Vigilucci's family of North County Italian dining. Surely, they wouldn't screw up a Muffaletta THAT bad, even if they DID put mustard on it. Of course it would show up with SOME olive salad, or at least AN olive.

I don't know what to say about what happened next. I was brought a plate of lies. It was a sandwich on Ciabatta with Italian meats. No olive salad. Here's a definition of a Muffaletta:

A sandwich made with a large round roll of Italian bread split in half and filled with layers of hard salami, ham, provolone, and olive salad.

See that? Olive salad. Mentioned as a key ingredient. Know what's not mentioned? Mustard. Lettuce. Tomato. LETTUCE AND TOMATO. NOT THERE. But there they were, making it plainly clear that they would not spring for olives, but lettuce and tomato? That we can do.

My fries were limp. My wife picked her way through a very sad veggieburger and her fries.

I looked through the menu there and, having had a decent time at Vigilucci's in February, I was surprised with Robbie's and, obviously, not in a good way. Every part of the menu, every part of our meals, suggested a family that had grown content to sit on its culinary laurels. Sure, it's prime real estate along Coast Highway, yes, it was clean and polite. But I need the restaurant to serve me good food.

What they did instead was to serve me an Italian sub I could've gotten at Subway and deceptively called it a Muffaletta. I wonder if they know what a Muffaletta really is.

I don't want to be all destructive. Advice: I could have taken HALF the size of my sandwich, add an olive salad, get rid of lettuce and tomato, sell it for the same price. I would've been happier. HALF as much food for the SAME price, I would have been happy, IF ONLY there was olive salad.

Thank you for your consideration and patience with my capitalization bonanza this evening.

posted on March 21, 2011